Violent crime in yet another neighborhood, which not so many years ago, was a nice, middle-class neighborhood. Yet far too little notice of so many similar incidents seems to be taken by politicians, civic leaders and the media. Certainly not a fraction of the attention given to Angela Corey, the debate and dialog regarding "Keith Haring's Ghost", or the pension issues in particular.

Those who even erroneously like to use Detroit analogies and comparisons would do well to note numerous studies now acknowledge that Detroit's problems were in large part caused by crime, including pervasive public corruption. Middle-class workers and families, both black and white fled the city, due to the increasing crime problem, which was worsened by reductions in police and public safety services. The resultant loss of property tax revenue was in addition to a loss of sales tax revenues, as there were fewer affluent consumers of goods and services.